Assignment #2 - Digg Reader & Affinity Groups

The Digg reader is an RSS application that can search for millions of news, magazine, and online articles on demand, with continuously updated news feeds and easy to use search features. Some entries even include shorter versions of full page articles. There are also additional features for Facebook and Twitter users to share their stories with other friends. Using Digg was a new experience for me because I never used the application before and normally used regular search engines to find news articles.

My Digg stream is very broad because I have many different interests, including news, business, science, television, movies, and etc. The three topics that I pay the most attention and look up the most are: history, technology, and the internet. When I want to focus on a specific subject for my projects, like computers and smartphones, I can choose the sources that are specifically devoted on the particular subject or topic and read articles that are related to the selected topic. If I want research on many different subjects or topics, I can select all of the most popular stories right now on Digg.

I find that using the Digg reader to find news stories and articles on the internet easier and more efficient than with any internet search engine. Once I got the hang of it, it is easy to use and a lot of fun.

My affinity group that I selected is the Southern California Historical Society. The reason I chose this group is my interest in studying about the cultural history of the Los Angeles region and how the region was like in the past, whether it is 100 years back or during the time that I was born. I believe there are many stories of L.A.'s past that are left untold or forgotten and we should try to find those stores and preserve it for future generations.

Questions

1.    What are the unique features of the Digg reader?

Answer: The unique features of Digg reader include: the ability to choose your favorite topics, save the article of your choice, narrow results by popularity, topic, interest, and etc. and social media sharing, such as uploading to users on Facebook or Twitter.

2.    How does the Digg reader and other RSS applications work?

Answer: The Digg reader, like other RSS (Rich Site Summary) applications operate by searching many different websites to find updated information and then displays a summary of the updates at one place. This can include news, blog entries, web videos, and audio.